CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The shadows were gathering in hungry clusters by the time they heard voices outside.
‘Oh God, about time,’ Michaela said, standing up and stretching her aching limbs. ‘We’ve been here for hours.’
Trisha was trying to peer through the gap in the door. ‘What did I tell you? Assholes. They could have managed it a bit quicker.’
There was a scrabbling at the door and they heard a key scrape in the lock.
Trisha was pulling at the door before the key had finished turning.
Michaela picked up her backpack and shrugged it on. Grabbed her jacket and followed Trisha out into the waning afternoon. It had begun to drizzle and the tiny clearing in which the pool house stood was draped in a fine mist like a gossamer spider’s web. She walked down the steps and stared at the two men waiting for them.
Trisha was pointing to Gardener and shaking her head. ‘Tell me why that asshole’s not locked up?’ she said.
Their Officer Friendly stepped forward. ‘The door wasn’t locked,’ he said. ‘And Mr. Gardener here didn’t have anything to do with you being stuck in there.’
Gardener broke in. ‘He’s right. The door was merely jammed. If you two had been thinking straight instead of making up these wild stories you would have figured that out and been out long ago.’
Michaela stared at him and Trisha was shaking her head.
‘No way,’ Trisha said. ‘We heard you just then unlocking the door. And you knocked me out. I saw you, God damnit, just before you bashed me over the head with something!’
Gardener spread his hands out. ‘No key,’ he said. ‘The key to this place has been lost. How could I have just unlocked the door?’ He turned to the policeman. ‘I’ll get a locksmith here tomorrow, Bill. Get a new lock put on it.’
Michaela had had enough. ‘We know you’re behind this,’ she said. ‘You attacked us and locked us in there. That’s the truth.’ It was her turn to address the officer. ‘Why aren’t you listening to us? Why would we be lying about it?’
The officer shook his head. ‘I don’t know what you two think you’re up to, but Mr. Gardener here was at the hospital today with his mother. So it couldn’t have happened the way you’re telling me.’ He looked away from Michaela. ‘Joseph?’ he asked.
Gardener nodded and looked at the women. ‘Ladies,’ he said. ‘I’ll leave it to Bill here to escort you off my property. I need to see my mother. She’s not well.’ They watched him walk away. Officer Friendly stepped forward. ‘I’m going to take you back to the Curran’s place,’ he said. ‘You will be packing your things and then I will be following you out of town.’ He started walking back towards the lodge.
Trisha looked at Michaela. ‘Is that even legal?’ she asked. ‘Escorting us out of town like that? It’s like something out of an old movie.’
Michaela shrugged. She took hold of Trisha’s hand and they followed the police man.
Back at the cabin, Officer Friendly stood impassively in the kitchen while they sorted and packed their things. Michaela carried their newly purchased groceries down to the car, not saying a word as she walked past the policeman. Trisha followed with their bags.
They stood by the car. Michaela fished her key out of her pocket. She’d changed into clean clothes and bemoaned the fact that she hadn’t been able to shower. She could still smell the stagnant water in her hair.
‘I wish we’d been able to clean up properly,’ she told Trisha. ‘Allison isn’t going to be impressed when she sees the state of the place.’ She looked up at the little log cabin with the friendly yellow light on, glowing a beacon in the gathering darkness.
Trisha shrugged. ‘What can we do about it? Officer Nazi there isn’t going to let us do some housekeeping. He wants us out.’
Michaela nodded. ‘I’ll go lock up, then,’ she said.
The police cruiser’s headlights followed them for five miles down the road, dazzling Michaela in the rear vision mirror. She drove in silence, waiting for the cruiser to turn back. Eventually, it pulled over and sat on the road’s verge, headlights like eyes watching as they drove away down the road.
Trisha was the first to speak. ‘He was lying through his teeth,’ she said. ‘You heard him turn that key in the door as well as I did. It was locked.’ She fished a battered packet of cigarettes out of a pocket. ‘Sorry babe, but I’m gonna have one of these. The day someone tried to kill you is not the perfect day to quit.’
Michaela reached out a hand and stroked Trisha’s cheek. ‘It’s been some sort of a day all right,’ she said. She checked the rear vision mirror. Nothing behind them now but the dark unwinding road and trees either side. She slowed and started looking for a side road.
‘What’re we doing?’ Trisha asked, cranking down the window a notch and blowing smoke outside.
‘We’re turning around.’
Michaela felt Trisha looking at her in the darkness. ‘We’re going back?’ Trisha said.
Michaela nodded. ‘I have such a bad feeling. Something’s going to happen. We can’t let that bastard get away with it. And if he thinks we’re out of the way, what’s going to stop him?’
Trisha blew out another lungful of smoke. ‘You’re crazy,’ she said. ‘What if he catches us again? We won’t be dealt with so lightly this time.’ She was silent a minute. ‘What makes you think he’s going to act tonight?’
Michaela found a dirt road and pulled into it, stopped the car. She turned and faced Trisha. ‘I saw his face,’ she said. ‘When he turned to walk away. He had the look of someone congratulating themselves on a plan well laid. I’d bet anything that tonight’s the night.’ She gazed out into the blackness that blanketed the night. There wasn’t even a moon out. ‘He going to kill his mother tonight,’ she finished.
Trisha pinched out her cigarette between finger and thumb and turfed it out the window. She touched Michaela’s arm.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Let’s go stop him.’
Michaela grasped her fingers and squeezed. ‘Just like that?’ she said. ‘You’re going along with it just like that?’
Trisha squeezed back. ‘Just like that,’ she agreed. ‘Let’s go do it.’
Michaela stared at Trisha in the dark car next to her. She put her hand behind Trisha’s neck and drew her forward into a kiss. ‘You’re amazing,’ she said and nodded. ‘Let’s go do this.’ She backed the car out of the side road and turned back toward the lake.